Following a relatively quiet day on Monday of this week we exploded into Tuesday!
Tuesday began with our senior pupils who ‘qualified’ for the Reading Quiz Team heading off for their competition. Our Reading Team, tutored by Mrs McCarthy, has been very busy reading, reading and reading……
The team performed exceptionally well earning a superb 2nd place. They could still qualify for the finals. Watch this space.
Well done to all in our team:
Rhianna Comerford, Laura Findlay, Matthew Munro, Imogen McFadden, Christopher Lyon, Joseph Moore, Jude McCarthy, Grace McLaughlin and of course, not forgetting Bob, the team mascot.
Huge thanks to Mrs McCarthy for taking time to school our team, they did us all proud.
Meanwhile Primary 3 pupils and staff were busily preparing to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We were delighted to welcome our P3 boys and girls with their families to Cathedral Church on Tuesday evening. It was a beautiful celebration of this important sacrament. Well done to all concerned. At Mass on Thursday morning Canon O’Mahoney took time to comment most favourably on our children, their excellent preparation and commitment to the sacrament.
Also, still on Tuesday (busy, busy day) our senior pupils excelled themselves in taking part in North Lanarkshire Council’s Song Writing Concert in Motherwell Civic Centre. Primary 7c, ably assisted by Miss Green and Mrs Wilkinson, wrote their own song, devising lyrics and composing the tune. The song was themed around our school motto ‘Living to Learn, Learning to Live’. There were 9 choirs in the concert with our own pupils performing last and closing the show.
There is a saying: You keep the best to the end – this is exactly what happened at the concert, our children were magnificent. A huge well done to all of the P7 and P6 children who volunteered to be ‘a choir’ for that evening. Thanks also to the great support from our parents and extended family members, this is greatly appreciated.
Suffice to say we slept well on Tuesday night!
Thursday of this week was the day we participated in our Lenten Charity Event. This week we themed it around World Book Day. Mrs McCarthy and our junior librarians organised the whole day with a variety of events. All children were encouraged to come to school and nursery dressed as a favourite character from a book, it was great to see so many children enjoying such a wide range of books.
We raised an incredible £362 from the school and a further £87 from the nursery giving a grand total of £449, thanks to all for their generosity.
Late on Thursday afternoon we welcomed an old friend back to our school, Mr Gerry Carr came along to play for our choir as they enter their final week of rehearsals for Glasgow Music Festival. Mr Carr was most impressed by our choir, their diction, their timing and their fabulous sense of fun. We look forward to The Music Festival on Monday 14th March.
Friday morning brought great excitement for Primary 5, it was their coffee morning. Once again I am overwhelmed by the generosity of parents and families with their donations of home baking, raffle prizes and their support in attending this event. It was a very successful and enjoyable coffee morning. We raised £615.56 – a magnificent amount. Well done to all concerned, particularly Primary 5. An ENORMOUS thanks to our coffee morning volunteers who so kindly give of their own time to assist with the organization and running of the morning, we couldn’t do without you. It was great to see an increased number of parents & friends of the school there to help out.
A wee special word to Primary 7 before they set off on their adventures next week to Kilbowie Outdoor Centre in Oban. We wish you all a fabulous week and thanks in advance to the great number of staff and parents who have volunteered their own time to accompany our children.
Meanwhile, down in the nursery……here’s what’s been happening.
On Monday the children had the opportunity to watch ‘The Lion King’ in preparation for the big school show. After the viewing they discussed the names of the characters and the type of animals the characters are. Each group chose an animal to research and a letter went home to inform parents/carers of this superb homelink opportunity. The groups are researching the following animals. As always we thank you in advance for your support in this venture.
- Brilliant Bluebells – Lions
- Fantastic Foxgloves – Meerkats
- Happy Heathers – Hyenas
- Super Snowdrops – Baboons
- Terrific Thistles – Warthogs
Each group will collate their findings and present them as a group to the other children. As the children are exploring a range of technology throughout this topic these presentations will be recorded.
The transformation of the playroom got underway and this will continue next week.
In the Literacy area the children recalled the story of ‘The Lion King’ and had the opportunity to write some of the names of the characters from the story. Some of their hard work has been displayed on the writing wall. Children have also brought in their own Lion King toys for the display and other animals that can be found in the Jungle.
In numeracy they have exploring the Jungle jigsaws and used the internet to gather information and look for photographs of the animals in the wild from the story. They used the technology to record their findings which they placed on leaves for the display. They also listened to some Jungle songs and animal themed action rhymes on the SmartBoard. In construction the children are using the logs from outside to create Pride Rock and are role-playing with the animals.
In the art area the children made Lion faces using pasta to create a mane and a range of collage materials. These have been displayed to create Mufasa in the construction area and he is surrounded by the facts that the children discovered about lions. They have used the playdough to make different wild animals and role-played with the wild animal water toys. On Friday the children painted some of the main characters in the story for their display. Watch out for these next week.
In the snack area the children made a mindmap of Jungle food and prepared a Jungle feast creating Lion faces and snakes from fruit and vegetables. They discussed how they can change the vets into a Jungle and all their ideas can be found on a mindmap in the playroom. They started creating trees for the transformation which will also continue next week.
Outdoors they discussed how they could create a Jungle in the garden and what equipment they would need. By the end of the week they had created a Jungle den using some of the equipment they take to the forest. The new logs in the garden are sparking their imaginations as they use them to role-play the Jungle animals.
On Wednesday the 2nd Forest Kindergarten block came to an end with the children having a little graduation ceremony in the forest with their families. This was very well attended and a big thank you goes to all who gave up their time to attend. The children took great pleasure in showing their parents/carers the rules of the forest and showed off the new skills they had gained. They encouraged their parents to have a go at the night line where they were blindfolded and had to follow their child’s instructions round the rope course. There were a few good sports and you can see how they got on in the photographs. The children have all thoroughly enjoyed their forest experience and some were even a bit sad that it had come to an end. Please remember you can visit the site and the Greenlink at any time. The staff would like to thank the 3 adults who have accompanied the children to the site each week rain, hail or snow and have been a great asset to the children’s experience. I think they will miss it too!
On Thursday along with the school we celebrated World Book Day. The children dressed up as their favourite character from a book and throughout the day they listened to a variety of stories that they had brought in. They also got the chance to create part of the Big Book story that was making its way around the whole school. What great imaginations our early learners have. As always the children loved dressing up and danced to Jungle music and action games throughout the session. The staff got in on the act too and the final story of the day was 101 Dalmatians which brought our domestic animal topic to an end.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Blog, we hope you enjoyed it. If you did, why not leave a wee comment.
Mrs Shields
